LULU. SCHIGOLCH. (Sitting down.) The truth is, I'm in need of money. I've hired a flat for my mistress. SCHIGOLCH. LULU. Have you taken another mistress here, too? LULU. SCHIGOLCH. She's from Frankfort. In her youth she was mistress to the King of Naples. She tells me every day she was once very bewitching. SCHIGOLCH. LULU. (Outwardly with complete composure.) Does she need the money very badly? LULU. SCHIGOLCH. She wants to fit up her own apartments. Such sums are of no account to you. (Lulu is suddenly overcome with a fit of weeping.) SCHIGOLCH. you LULU. (Flinging herself at Schigolch.) O God Omnipotent! LULU. SCHIGOLCH. (Patting her.) Well? What is it now? SCHIGOLCH. LULU. (Sobbing violently.) It's too horrible! LULU. SCHIGOLCH. (Draws her onto his knee and holds her in his arms like a little child.) Hm—You're trying to do too much, child. You must go to bed, now and then, with a story.—Cry, that's right, cry it all out. It used to shake you just so fifteen years ago. Nobody has screamed since then, the way you could scream! You didn't wear any white tufts on your head then, nor any [Pg 48] transparent stockings on your legs: you had neither shoes nor stockings then.
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